A handpicked group of soldiers — by Julius Caesar, no less! — must break into the druid stronghold to locate and destroy the secret weapon that could help them win the Battle of Alesia. They are centurion Claudius Marcellus (Richard Harrison, not yet in the world of Godfrey Ho), Germanicus (Ralph Hudson, who was only in one other movie, Ape Man of the Jungle), knife thrower Varus (Goffredo Unger) and Castor (Ettore Manni, who hits all the various genre of Italian exploitation cinema from this peplum to westerns like For a Few Extra Dollars, poliziotteschi like Calling All Police Cars, giallo such as A.A.A. Massaggiatrice bella presenza offresi… and even is in Fellini’s City of Women and Bava’s Rabid Dogs). They are joined by the young Valerius (Alberto Dell’Acqua, who is in a ton of westerns as well as Zombi), who wants to be a soldier like all of them.

They are captured and placed in a cell next to noblewoman Livilla (Wandisa Guida, Miss Cinema of 1954, who is also in I Vampiri) and her bodyguard Drusus (Philippe Hersent, So Sweet, So Dead) whose spirit has been destroyed by the tortures of the terrifying druid Vercingetorix (Renato Baldini, Who Killed the Prosecutor and Why?). He tries to do the same thing to Claudius Mercellus, threatening him with heated metal, and the centurion just picks it up and burns his own chest with it. Man, these guys are tough. Anything to find that catapult, right? Even if the kid has to die.

This movie was directed by Anthony Dawson, whose name I love to say because he’s really Antonio Margheriti. This was written by the always busy Ernesto Gastaldi along with Arlette Combret and producer Luciano Martino.

As the genres go in fashion in Italy from sword and sandal to westerns, the final films of the glory days of peplum begin to give way to other films and be inspired by them. This could be a war movie other than the costumes.

You can watch this on Tubi.